Thursday, March 10, 2011

Bits and pieces

Some interesting bits and pieces from the web:

This article in the New Yorker made my blood boil. Basic Premise: "How dare we take away free parking for suburbo-tourists to provide safer bicycling facilities. Bicycling was scary and dangerous when I did it as a crazy kid, and bikers will always therefore be a lunatic fringe of (humorless) losers"

A great (and to my mind humorous) point by point dissection of that article here.
A more laid back BSNY takedown
A more pointed response by Felix Salmon

There are monied interests in Park Slope Brookline who are using their influence to try to lynch NYC DOT and its visionary Commissioner Janette Sadik Khan and stir up anti- bike sentiment in their effort to remove a bicycle lane that they claim was imposed by fiat. Said bike lane was actually requested by the community and developed through a lengthy public process that these important people were too busy to actually attend, so they're surprised and shocked when change actually arrived, and are doing their best to roll it back through a lawsuit.

From my vantage in Boston, it's like watching an awful car crash in slow motion. I'm not sure what to do but be horrified, and be afraid of such a backlash here.

On a lighter note, if you're a Mad Men fan like me, you might enjoy this PSA promoting highspeed rail (No John Hamm or Christina Hendriks sadly)

5 comments:

It seems that any discussion about rail must include the phrase "high speed", perhaps because otherwise, embarrassingly, it would be obvious that we're actually 50 years behind the rest of the industrialized world in developing basic transportation infrastructure.

"Early in Cassidy’s piece, he recalls his bike trips of yore, where 'part of the thrill was avoiding cabs and other vehicles' and the danger left him 'shaking.' That’s fine for a hobbyist, but not for a commuter. If the walk is too long, biking is too dangerous and the subways and buses are inconvenient, then cars are the final answer. That means a world in which the roads are more clogged and Cassidy spends more time in traffic. I’ve seen that future and it’s called Los Angeles. New Yorkers should want no part of it."

ugh, how infuriating. similar mentality here in philly, when they put in new bike lanes last year on pine and spruce. drivers complaining that it's not fair to them, blah blah increased traffic blah blah. they only want short term solutions to their motor vehicle-based needs, and nothing else.

Omg I want to scratch his eyes out. What bridge and tunnel bullshit. He is not a real new yorker no matter how long he has been there. and I challenge him head to head on the ny topography. Oh man! And I haven't lived there for 12 years. Real new yorkers get their licenses at age 30. Just saying.

I've been keeping up w/ the NYC bike lane controversy in the Times. What a shame. No matter how much public comment is documented or how good the efforts to promote public forums, those who don't like the outcome will often insist that they had no opportunity to provide input. What a shame. One of the chief oppontents is of course married to a member of Congress, making the claim even sadder.